Here’s a fun scenario: Your marketing team hit their MQL target last quarter. Your revenue number was still short. That gap is the problem.
Before you respond by thinking, “the MQL goal must have been insufficient,” there are important factors to consider when deciding what to work on to hit next quarter’s revenue number. Remember, MQLs measure marketing activity. Pipeline velocity measures business momentum. In fact, MQL is but a sub-component of pipeline velocity. They are not the same thing, and confusing what they mean and making choices to optimize the wrong one is expensive.
TL;DR:
- MQLs measure activity; pipeline velocity measures momentum.
- Formula: (Opportunities × Win Rate × Deal Value) / Sales Cycle Length — MQLs are just 1 of 4 levers.
- Small gains across all four levers can double velocity; chasing MQLs alone barely moves it.
- CMOs should own past the MQL handoff; CEOs should ask about velocity, not lead counts.
Why MQLs became the default
When the metric became popular, MQLs gave marketing a scoreboard at a time when marketing had no scoreboard. An important first move towards accountability. However, the B2B buying environment has changed in many ways since then, including longer cycles, larger buying committees, and more self-directed buyers, to name a few. Predictably, a metric built for a 2010 funnel, like MQLs, is much less relevant to a business in 2026.
Pipeline velocity measurement and factors
Pipeline velocity is the speed at which money moves through the business, specifically marketing investments. Here’s the formula:
Pipeline Velocity = (Number of Opportunities x Win Rate x Average Deal Value) / Length of Sales Cycle
In this case, notice opportunities (MQLs) is one of 4 total factors, all of which are influenceable. In fact, a 10% increase in MQLs changes velocity slightly, even if discounting the rush to increase that number and a corresponding quality decrease as a result of the same. A coordinated set of small improvements across all four variables can double velocity. That is the argument for a different kind of marketing strategy.
4 levers: A quantitative example
If the goal is to increase pipeline velocity, MQLs are but one lever, perhaps not even the most effective one. Consider some modest improvements elsewhere and the impacts they make on velocity. Consider:
Baseline: 50 opportunities, 25% win rate, $40K ACV, 90-day cycle = specific velocity number
- Scenario A: Win rate improves by 5 points
- Scenario B: Sales cycle shortens by 15 days
- Scenario C: Average deal value increases 10%
- Scenario D: All three improve modestly at once
In this scenario, a 10% in MQL has an equal impact on velocity as a 10% increase in ACV and roughly half the increase in velocity as a 5% win-rate improvement or -15 day sales cycle decrease.
The point: a 10% improvement in MQLs moves velocity slightly. Compared to a coordinated set of small improvements across all four variables can double velocity. That is the argument for a different kind of strategy.
What must a CMO do?
Pipeline velocity requires CMOs to take accountability further into the cycle.
Most CMOs own the top of the funnel and hand off at the MQL stage, which is part of the problem. CMOs can go deeper in the process for a bigger impact. For example:
- Win rate (Is marketing enabling Sales with the right content and positioning?)
- Deal value (Is marketing attracting the right ICP or just volume?)
- Cycle length (Is marketing’s nurture infrastructure accelerating decisions or letting deals go cold?)
All of this is a bigger job for marketing. It’s also a more defensible one at the budget table.
Convincing the CEO to reconsider the marketing scorecard
Instead of asking, “How many leads did we generate?” The right questions are:
- What is our current pipeline velocity?
- Which variable is our biggest drag?
- What is marketing doing specifically to move it?
A CEO who asks these questions gets a marketing team that answers them. A CEO who asks for MQL reports gets MQL reports.
Some practical next steps
Three concrete operational moves marketing teams can make include:
- Replace the MQL report with a pipeline contribution review.
- Align marketing KPIs to velocity variables rather than top-of-funnel volume.
- Build a shared dashboard between Marketing and Sales that tracks all four velocity variables in real time. Not a technology argument, an accountability argument.
